Writing

How Chester Bennington’s Death Impacted As It Is’ New Album

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Pop-Punk/Rock band As It Is recently released their third studio album, The Great Depression. Throughout the album, they deal with heavy themes of depression, suicide and the rise of sadness in our modern world. These themes are especially important following the recent deaths in the music industry. Avicii, Kyle Pavone and Chester Bennington’s deaths have rocked the world over the past two years.

Chester’s death hit especially close to home for rock band As It Is, leaving a hole in Linkin Park, a pillar of the rock community. As musicians do, the band wrote through the sadness and let Bennington inspire their latest record. In an attempt to fight stigma and the romanticisation of depression, they wrote and produced an album that tells a story that’s all too real.

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The Devil in his Eye

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It was my first day of school and I was excited. Even though I hadn’t been to kindergarten or pre-school, I was excited. Going to school looked so fun on TV, so I was pumped.

As Mum dropped me off, she gave me a kiss goodbye. “Have fun at school today.”

I smiled back at her, confident that I wouldn’t disappoint her. Kids surrounded me, rushing off to their classes. Despite being a little nervous, I was ready; I knew that school was going to be a blast. Quickly lining up at my classroom, I looked around at the kids around me. A handful were talking in loud voices while a pair spoke in hushed tones. Everyone else was silent, unsure in the crowd of unfamiliar faces.

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Empathy is Dead, Grab the Defibrillator

I’m the kind of person who notices all the internal problems with society. No society is perfect, but that shouldn’t mean that we can’t improve ourselves and hope that our personal changes ripple onto others.

Something that’s really present in the world currently is the lack of empathy surrounding us. However, I’m not the only one saying this. At the release of their track “The Stigma (Boys Don’t Cry)”, British pop-punk band As It Is spoke about the concept of the song. They said,

“This song and video tackle toxic masculinity, gender expectations and the long overdue need to rebel and speak out against outdated ideals that to this day continue to threaten individuality. The eponymous ‘stigma’ is that sense of blemish and shame so often associated with showing and expressing emotion, that causes too many to hide who they are…in these increasingly disconnected times, where empathy is seemingly on a decline at many levels of everyday modern life, it is vital to stand up against such outdated tropes.”

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Taka’s Thankful for Bad Experiences?

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Japanese rock band ONE OK ROCK’s frontman Takahiro Moriuchi interviewed with Rockin’ On Japan in 2012, Taka had a lot of interesting things to say. For one, he was publicly going by the name Morita since 2005. Only a year after the interview did that change in 2013 as he seemingly came to terms with his birth name.

Why Morita and not Moriuchi? Morita was his mother, Masako’s maiden name. After conflict with his father, Shinichi and his parent’s divorce in 2005, Taka was left on his own, still a teenager. Rather than letting it be a negative experience, Taka made it positive. Somehow he pulled through. He joined his band ONE OK ROCK, found a job and his own place. His life changed dramatically and so did he, something he’s thankful for.

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